Business Travelers, Beware the Customs Desk
29th May 2008
Read it.
Susan Gurley, executive director of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives, an advocacy group for the business-travel industry, tells us that the problem isn’t that Customs can now conduct these searches, but that Customs hasn’t made public its policies regarding how it handles the data it confiscates. For example, Gurley asks, how long will Customs keep a laptop? What happens to data once Customs is finished inspecting them? And how will Customs ensure that confidential information doesn’t leak out?
We tried for a week to get answers to those questions. The closest we came was an assurance from Hollinger that Customs and Border Protection handles all information as required by law.
Our pure-speculation translation: Customs is making this stuff up as it goes along.
Power without policy = arbitrary decisions by some carrot-IQ public employee. Hello, TSA.